


Down By The Pier

by JeanValJean



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Death, Most of the characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 11:22:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13926120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeanValJean/pseuds/JeanValJean
Summary: A story about learning to love, to accept, and to let go. But not necessarily in that order.





	Down By The Pier

 

> _Some scholars believe that the universe grants us a path to follow, and if there are obstacles, we must take a different route until we are on track again. For The Pier Hotel, the only path seemed to be comprised completely of obstacles. Since it’s opening in 1804, The Pier has undergone over 100 structural changes such as extending rooms, installing elevators, and adding a pool. Mr. Edwin Smith, founder and original owner of The Pier, documented around several fires, natural disasters, and unexplained disappearances that shrouded the hotel in mystery…_

“This place sounds fucking terrifying.”

Eren Yeager and his closest friend Armin Arlert are sat in the lobby of _The Pier Hote_ l, a far more dismal sight now than shown in the brochures from 100 years ago. To Eren’s disdain, Armin continues, eyes wide like a child. 

 _"1805: two fires, and a family that went missing from the fourth floor… 1809: a flooded basement,_ apparently a few maintenance guys died down there… Eren this is awesome for a history buff like me, but... how the hell are you gonna build this place up from all of that?" Armin wonders, eyes never leaving the stained pages of the brochure. "And they’re only mentioning some things, I've read up on this place and there's a lot more to it than they're saying. No wonder the markets been bad around here... I don't think you need too many superstitions to have a bad feeling about this place. Gives me chills." 

“Armin, C'mon,” Eren says with a roll of his eyes. “My dad could turn the sewers into a luxury getaway if he wanted to. This place is nothing.”

Grisha Yeager runs a chain of hotels and restaurants all across America, refurbishing the old, rundown places and turning them into something magnificent. Usually, that meant knocking down the old place and completely rebuilding from scratch, with a bright-winged _Survey Hotels_ logo flashing on every side of the goddamn eyesore of a building. Of course, coming from such a profitable family, Eren has to earn his keep somehow; if the owners won’t budge, Eren works at the place for a while until he’s high enough in the ranks to steal the papers right out from under the owners’ noses. Most people know that when a Yeager presents a resume, business will boom and the owners will sell in record time. 

Apparently, nobody in Shinganshina was aware of this. And something about the whole centuries-in-the-family thing says he’s going to be working here a while.

Eren bites his lip, giving Armin a sideways glance, as the door to their left opens and an older, handsome man emerges from its depths. He’s intimidating in every sense of the word but is shrouded in a somewhat loving aura.

“We’re glad you expressed your interest in working here.” His voice is deep and sultry, but there’s a darkness hidden behind his demeanor that makes his blue eyes burn with deceit. “It’s not too often young people like yourself spare this place a glance anymore." 

Eren unclenches his jaw, unaware he’d been doing so. “Yeah, I guess it’s not exactly the local hangout. But I like it. It's got a real homely feel to it, you know?"

He feels Armin shift uncomfortably beside him, obviously knowing he’s lying. Mr. Smith doesn’t respond, instead continuing to write notes in a notebook for his newest (and apparently only) employee. After a few moments of silence, Mr. Smith sighs and hands Eren the closed notebook and an old t-shirt pulled from one of the desk drawers. “Welcome to The Pier Hotel,” He says with a challenging grin. “I’m glad to have you working with us. I trust that you’ve read over the map." He glances at Armin. "I don't believe I've seen your resume. Are you staying with us as well?”

Armin shakes his head, stuttering out a hurried “no." For a brief moment, Armin's face pales, and his gaze shifts from Mr. Smith to the office behind him. Armin sucks in a rushed breath and stands. "I'll be going now, see you Eren," He stutters, rushing for the front exit.

Eren raises an eyebrow. What got into him?

Mr. Smith continues without a second thought. “We don’t open for another week so I trust that you will acquaint yourself with the place and all of its little quirks in that time. My flight leaves this evening, however, if anything is to happen please dial 6 on the lobby phone and we will send our maintenance team to assist.”

Mr. Smith lists off a few things before guiding Eren to the reception desk and presenting him with yet another list of things to do and who to call. It’s a quick introduction and goodbye, and before he knows it, Eren is stood in the middle of the dusty, decrepit lobby with several papers in his hand and a suitcase half full of necessities leaning against the wall behind him. With a sigh, Eren scans the list to try and distract himself from the tearing sensation in his stomach.

 **1** : Keep kitchen locked from outside, **NOT** from inside  
\- Dial 11 for problems  
**2** : Water must be switched off 9pm **-** 9am  
**3** : Keep garden neat, sweep leaves etc.  
**4** : Lights on in hallway on the 5th floor during daylight hours  
**5** : Elevator is not in use during winter  
**6** : **DO NOT** leave grounds unattended for longer than 45mins - you will be found out

Eren swallows nervously before re-reading and scoffing at the list, thinking it childish that those things need to be written down. He’s only there for a week until the rest of the staff come back, right? And there aren’t even any guest bookings in the diary. 

“Guess this alleviates boredom,” He says aloud, before grabbing his suitcase and following the map up to the staff quarters.

After two flights of stairs, which shriek with every movement, Eren finds the staff floor and goes into the adjacent door, which has been designated his room until further notice. It’s smaller than he would have liked, but hopefully in better condition than the other rooms, otherwise he’s going to have a lot of cleaning to do it a week. His father had said it was in bad condition, but this bad? He’d have to send photos to the board. Maybe even the health inspectors. Rats would explain the whole ‘lock the kitchen’ thing.

Mold creeps up the corners of the peeling walls and there are several places on each piece of furniture that appear to have been chewed or chipped at with something sharp. Eren gives the wall a pat, and it seems to scream in pain all throughout the inner workings of the ceiling. He grimaces, taking a gentle seat on the edge of the bed. The bedside phone, something that looks like it was invented in the 1700’s, is missing the number four, and the cable looks chewed.

Eren shakes his head. “Great.”

At 3pm on the 8th of December, Eren Yeager allows thoughts to enter his mind for the first time in over twenty years. He is completely alone in a hotel that was built in the 1800s. He cannot leave said building until there is another staff member present - which probably won't happen for another week. He must maintain parts of the building that, hopefully, within a month or so will be completely demolished, so that's clearly a waste of time. He hears footsteps approaching his door. He can’t call room service for dinner, so he probably has to-

There’s footsteps coming up the _fucking stairs what the fuck._

Eren bolts into an upright position and looks over at the door, as if it had suddenly grown teeth. There are two very clear foot-shaped shadows coming through the gap beneath the door. It’s hard to swallow let alone breathe, and Eren watches in terrified suspense as the feet slowly pace side to side before walking off as quickly as they’d come.

 _No way,_ he thinks. _No way, there’s no way there’s somebody in here. Maintenance maybe? A stray animal or something?_

 _Breathe, breathe_ , he tells himself. _It’s okay. It’s nothing. It’s a creepy hotel, of course, there are shadows and shit. I’ll sleep tonight and tomorrow clean the whole place top to fucking bottom, and then there’ll be no problems._

He doesn’t move his gaze from the door though. He can’t. Seconds pass that feel like hours, and finally, Eren works up the courage to go to the door and peer into the hallway.

It’s empty.

Each hallway light is turned on, dully flickering as if guiding him down the hallway to the stairwell. At first reluctant, Eren follows the lights, almost as if he’s being pulled by an invisible force. A large and vivacious presence, but also warm and tender. That’s a weird thing to think about a bunch of lights, Eren would later ponder. But at the moment his mind has entered a trance-like state as he blindly walks down to the staircase, following it down until he is once again standing in the lobby.

It takes Eren a few moments to come back to reality, and when he does he’s met with a sight that makes him jump: a janitor. Under normal circumstances, Eren would explode in a fit of anger and surprise, having thought that nobody was there but also frustrated that someone had bothered him in his room. But not this time.

Eren stares wide-eyed at the janitor, a man taller than he is and far leaner, with pale skin and a frustrated scowl. He’s wearing an army green janitorial outfit, briskly mopping the polished wooden floors at the entrance to the foyer. He continues his work, even though Eren knows he’s seen him.

“Hey,” Eren says, voice confident and easily projected. “Are you supposed to be here?”

The janitor glances back to Eren, seemingly unalarmed by his presence. He looks him up and down, clearly unimpressed, before leaning on the mop handle with a bored expression. “It’s not like I’d be anywhere else. I’m the janitor.”

Eren swallows. _Dick_. “You know Er- Mr. Smith isn’t here for a week, right? I’m supposed to be taking care of the place. You don’t have to come in. I'm sure you're on a salary."

“I didn’t ‘ _come in_ ,’ I never leave. I’m in the room next to yours.” The janitor returns to mopping, continuing to speak with his back turned to Eren. “Nice of you to say ‘hi,’ by the way. It’s not like we have to work together or anything.”

Eren’s eyes narrow. “If I’d have known I was in company I would have said something.” He sighs, unclenching his jaw. “Sorry. It’s been a long day-“

“You’re telling me.”

Eren ignores the comment. “I’m Eren. It’s nice to meet you.”

The janitor continues to mop until the whole area is wet, leaving Eren wondering whether or not he was ignoring him or didn’t even hear him. Finally, after an extended period of awkward and entirely too rehearsed silence, he places the mop back in the bucket and walks towards Eren, extending a pale hand to shake. “Jean. It’ll be good to have some help around here.”

Eren shakes but withdraws quickly. _He’s so cold._

“You’re the only one here?”

Jean nods. “For the most part, yeah. I dust the place, keep things orderly, but one person isn’t enough to keep it sanitary. We’ve got a whole team but they usually don’t start until business hours. And since we’re only open during fall and winter it’s hard to keep the place looking good the whole time.” Jean starts to walk away to empty the bucket, assuming Eren will follow. He does. “You chose a pretty shit time to come, actually. We’ve had about three people quit, and with those contractors breathing down our necks we’re probably gonna lose a few more. May as well quit before you’re expected to stay.”

Eren swallows. “Contractors, huh? That sucks. This place has been in business a pretty long time, right?”

Jean empties the bucket of dirty water down the sink in the laundry room, putting cleaning products away as he speaks. “Yeah, since the early 1800s. You’d think with the age of the place and all the shitty history they’d just let ‘em knock it down and start again, but. Guess that’s not what we’re doing. Mr. Smith… well, the whole family has been around a while. I get why he doesn’t want to sell up. But he’s getting old, and he doesn’t have any direct descendants to take over from him. Seems like a waste of time to keep the place if you ask me, but still.”

_Why is he telling me this? Erwin wouldn’t tell me anything about the history or any of this. How does the janitor know so much?_

Eren raises an eyebrow, daring to ask more questions. “What do you mean, ‘shitty history’?”

Jean shrugs, leaning against a washing machine. He doesn’t make eye contact, and if he does, it’s fleeting. “Lots of stuff, I guess,” He starts. “Some of it’s in the brochures, but other things have to be kept between staff. Mostly bad luck. Fires, conspiracies. Lots of death. I'm sure you read all about it in the lobby."

Eren sighs. “Yikes, that’s a lot. Guess that’s what the whole list of rules is about the- wait. You saw me in the lobby?"

Jean raises an eyebrow. “List of rules?” He asks, quizzically.

_Seriously? Is he just going to ignore me like that?_

Eren clears his throat, shifting his weight to lean a little farther from Jean. “Yeah, you don’t have them?” Jean shakes his head. “I’ll go get them. Kinda glad you’re here then, maybe you’ll know a bit more about what they mean.” Eren chuckles nervously and motions for Jean to follow him back to the staff rooms. Eren continues, talking half-heartedly about the opportunity to work at such a historical place and about the architecture. Anything to make it seem like he has no involvement in the contractors being around. As he turns the handle on his room and opens the door, he turns to Jean only to find that he’s not there.

“Jean?” He says, peering out into the hallway.

He’s gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really excited about this. Really, really excited.


End file.
